During this period the French hoped to weaken the position of the Việt Minh by granting more autonomy to ethnic minorities in Vietnam in the hopes of getting more support from them in their fight against the predominantly Kinh Việt Minh, which took control of large parts of Vietnam following the August Revolution and the power vacuum that occurred following the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II.

Voòng A Sáng (黃亞生, 1902–1975), alternatively known as Hoàng Phúc Thịnh (黃福盛) was a commander of a Nùng regiment in the Free French Forces during World War II.

[5][6] He and an expeditionary force of French Nùng soldiers returned to Cô Tô Island and the Vạn Hoa region where the terrain was favourable for the recapture of Móng Cái from the Việt Minh.

[5][6] The junk that used by Voòng A Sáng was named the Trung Hiếu (忠孝), this ship was later used as a symbol for the recapture of Móng Cái and the founding of the Nùng Hải Ninh Autonomous Territory, it was later also used on its coat of arms.

[7] On 15 April 1950 it was nominally placed under the authority of the Domain of the Crown with the enactment of the Dụ số 6/QT/TG decree by Chief of State Bảo Đại.

[8] The leader of the Nùng Autonomous Territory was Voòng A Sáng, a Hakka who was born on 19 March 1902 in Tấn Mài, Hà Cối District, Hải Ninh Province, Tonkin, French Indochina (present-day Hải Hà District, Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam).

[5] In 1914 he attended a military academy known as the học trường Thiếu Sinh Quân Núi Đèo, after graduating in 1920 he joined the French army where he was promoted to sergeant (Thượng Sĩ) in 1931.

[5][6] At first, the group temporarily resided in Ba Ngòi (Cam Ranh Bay) and Nha Trang,[5][6] afterwards, for the convenience of drinking water, the migrants flocked to live around the Ma Ó River.

[9] The 5th Division was largely composed of Nùng people until about 1965 when its composition was increasingly ethnic Vietnamese and the Nùngs moved into MIKE Force units.

[10] In the year 1956, during a series of purges of French colonial generals suspected of being pro-French by the United States-backed President Ngô Đình Diệm, Colonel Voòng A Sáng was forced to retire from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARV).

[5][6] In this position he was an advocate for the various ethnic minorities of Bắc Việt (North Vietnam) such as the Thái, Nùng, Mường, Mán, Mèo, Etc.

[11] They often served as bodyguards to the Special Forces and were regarded as a good source of security for green berets who were recruiting and training locals.

[1] The imports of the Nùng Autonomous Territory included rice, beverages, canned food, kerosene, gasoline, quick lime, and cement.

[1] The goods exported by the Nùng Autonomous Territory include pigs, chickens, ducks, spices, litchi, porcelain, do paper, anise, cinnamon, bamboo, etc.

[1] The Nùng Autonomous Territory contained 1 city (thủ phủ), 8 districts (huyện), and 1 island (hải đảo):[1][13][6] Below the District-level divisions were the tổng and communes (xã).